About Me

Known principally for his weekly political columns and his commentaries on radio and television, Chris Trotter has spent most of his adult life either engaging in or writing about politics. He was the founding editor of The New Zealand Political Review (1992-2005) and in 2007 authored No Left Turn, a political history of New Zealand. Living in Auckland with his wife and daughter, Chris describes himself as an “Old New Zealander” – i.e. someone who remembers what the country was like before Rogernomics. He has created this blog as an archive for his published work and an outlet for his more elegiac musings. It takes its name from Bowalley Road, which runs past the North Otago farm where he spent the first nine years of his life. Enjoy.

Bowalley Road Rules

The blogosphere tends to be a very noisy, and all-too-often a very abusive, place. I intend Bowalley Road to be a much quieter, and certainly a more respectful, place.So, if you wish your comments to survive the moderation process, you will have to follow the Bowalley Road Rules.These are based on two very simple principles:Courtesy and Respect.Comments which are defamatory, vituperative, snide or hurtful will be removed, and the commentators responsible permanently banned.Anonymous comments will not be published. Real names are preferred. If this is not possible, however, commentators are asked to use a consistent pseudonym.Comments which are thoughtful, witty, creative and stimulating will be most welcome, becoming a permanent part of the Bowalley Road discourse.However, I do add this warning. If the blog seems in danger of being over-run by the usual far-Right suspects, I reserve the right to simply disable the Comments function, and will keep it that way until the perpetrators find somewhere more appropriate to vent their collective spleen.

Followers

Thursday, 6 November 2014

The Men Behind The Wire

The Men Behind The Wire - The Wolfe Tones, 1973

WHEN JOHN KEY reassured us that any New Zealand soldiers sent to train Iraqis would be safe "behind the wire" of Iraq's army bases, it dislodged a little stone from the wall of my memory. "The men behind the wire?" Why did that phrase have such a familiar ring? And then I remembered the back bar of the Cook, in Dunedin, and men with thick Belfast accents, and learning the words to a new song born of "The Troubles".

Watch this video and struggle, as I did, with images of young men wearing balaclavas, carrying sub-machine guns and firing rockets - not from the dusty streets of Gaza or Mosul but from the terrace houses and narrow alleyways of Londonderry and Belfast. Understand that those children hurling stones at the retreating squaddies aren't stateless Palestinians from the West Bank but British subjects from the Falls Road. Absorb the fact that those gun-toting terrorists belong not to IS, but to the Provisional IRA. There are no Muslims in this footage - just good Catholic lads and lasses!

The song itself, written by Paddy McGuigan of the Barleycorn folk group, protests the British Government's decision in 1971 to "intern" (i.e. imprison) IRA suspects without charge and without trial in special camps (hence "the wire"). Recorded by Release Records in Dublin The Men Behind The Wire topped the Irish charts for three weeks in January-February 1972.

Our soldiers will not be "behind the wire" in quite the same way as the martyred Irish nationalist, Bobby Sands, and yet the phrase is curiously fitting. For the struggle in Northern Ireland, like the struggle we are about to join in Iraq/Syria, was also born out of religious schism and imperial arrogance. And so, as we watch the video, let us all recall that repression breeds resistance; that guns and bombs solve nothing; and that it is only when people finally agree to sit down and talk to one another that peace and justice become possible.

We have all sorts of people in New Zealand Jamie. We may well have Isis, because young people are stupid. We also have Nazis, Ku Klux Klanners, Trotskyite's and various brands of Christian nutters. And we don't do anything about them until they break the law. I'm sure somebody keeps an eye on them, you can't shoot people simply because of their beliefs. Not if you want to live in a democratic society.

You can stand by your words all you want. You're entitled to your opinion. But it doesn't altar the facts. We don't know how many Isis members there are in New Zealand, but I suspect not very many. Probably fewer than there are fascists. What's your solution to them, considering they've been active in New Zealand a lot longer than Isis, and have done a fair bit more damage. And if you start putting people in prison for their opinions, believe me – you'll be one of the first to go :-).

Jamie, either answer the fucking question – i.e. what you want to do with all the fascists? Or be labelled a troll and ignored. Actually if you told me you were a troll first up I would have ignored you from the beginning.

And if you read my other post you would realise I gave you an answer to your question. "We don't do anything 'about' them until they break the law." It's the rule of law that separates is from the dictators.

Wow – if "Trotter" didn't let you say it, it must've been pretty bad. I suggest you meander on over to the whale oil blog. They're quite happy with mad / racist statements over there. It's only when you supply logic that they block you :-).